All corners of the world

Meaning

All parts of the world.

Origin

From
Shakespeare's Cymbeline, 1611.

PISANIO:
What shall I need to draw my
sword? the paper
Hath cut her throat already. No, 'tis slander,
Whose
edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile,
whose breath
Rides on the posting winds and doth belie
All corners of
the world: kings, queens and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the
grave
This viperous slander enters. What cheer, madam?

Shakespeare also
used the phrase 'the four corners of the earth' in The Merchant of Venice, 1596, and in King John, 1595, 'the three corners of the world'.

BASTARD:
O, let us pay the time but needful woe,
Since it hath been beforehand with
our griefs.
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud
foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these
her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do
rest but true.